The Value of Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy

This is why I want you to read this…

I have good news and bad news for you when it comes to your Social Media Strategy:

The Bad News – Social Media, in general, doesn’t function very well as a marketing and sales channel.

The Good News – Social Media is a great way to make things happen indirectly.

The problem that many companies have with their Social Media efforts is that they are trying to turn these personal communication tools into marketing channels, instead of understanding and accepting how their customers actually use these tools.

The companies that typically understand how their customers use these tools and craft their Social Media strategy accordingly, tend to have better results.

Source: The Value of Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy | MackCollier.com – Social Media Training and Consulting

This is what I want you to understand. This is what I want you to do…

How to Use Facebook’s “Merge Duplicate Pages” Feature to Gain Fans

Image via CrunchBase

Your official Facebook Page may not be getting all the fans it deserves because users are accidentally Liking unofficial community Pages with the same name. These missing fans cost you news feed impressions and clicks and ad targeting opportunities. Fortunately, Facebook now offers the “Merge duplicate pages” tool to allow you to roll fans from duplicate community Pages into your official Page.

In the full version of this article found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, we discuss why using the tool is important, how to use it to gain new fans, how to eliminate other duplicate pages, and how to properly greet the new fans of your Page to prime them for future engagement.

via insidefacebook.com

Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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• Facebook Allows Duplicate Community Pages to Be Merged Into Official Pages (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Launches Community Pages for the ‘Unofficial’ (hubspot.com)
• The Facebook Marketing Bible August 2011 Edition Is Now Available (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Doesn’t Want You to LIKE Me (andrawatkins.com)

An Awesome Comparison Guide for Creating Location-Based Deals

Deals. They are everywhere these days. With our economy in a serious recession, consumers are laser-focused on getting the most for their money and EVERYONE loves a great deal.With the advent of location-based applications like Foursquare and Facebook Places, deals are becoming more relevant than ever before. The ability to geo-target a consumer walking into your store or down your block is a marketing first so it’s not surprising that many platform developers are jumping on the ‘location-based’ bandwagon.

All the hype surrounding these new tools makes it difficult for  business owners to make informed decisions about where to put their efforts. So let’s examine the facts and compare some of the more popular applications side by side.

via socialfresh.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’re interested in learning more…

Related Articles

• The Future of Location Based Services is “Checking Out” not “Checking In” (socialmediatoday.com)
• Know What FourSquare Is? 6 Million Users Do (searchenginewatch.com)
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• MomentFeed: Making Sense of LBS for Business (socialmediatoday.com)
• The Ultimate Comparison Guide for Creating Location-Based Deals (socialfresh.com)

Are Facebook Pages Killing the Corporate Web Site?

Image via CrunchBase

On the weekend, I was watching the National Football League playoff game between the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts. Aside from the action on the field, one thing that caught my attention was a commercial from Sears that ended with a suggestion that people visit Sears’ Facebook Page rather than sears.com.

The promotion of a corporate Facebook Page is not new but seeing a high-profile company put the spotlight on Facebook rather than its corporate Web site was, nevertheless, interesting.

It wasn’t that long ago that having a Web site was the core of a company’s digital presence. And while Web sites are still important and essential, Facebook has changed the digital dynamic.

via blog.sysomos.com

Facebook Pages can be a compelling alternative to a corporate website — especially for a small business. Comment or ‘connect with me’ to discuss how this applies to your business…

2011 Trends Driving Rural Small Business

Go to the source to read the article: smallbiztrends.com

Two of my favorite points? “Small town people are carrying smartphones, playing location based games, and using Facebook even while out of the house. Visitors and travelers are using Google Local to find businesses in even the smallest of towns. Travelers and locals review small town businesses on sites like Yelp and Urban Spoon. All of this is happening now. Smart small town businesses are taking advantage of this, and 2011 should see more businesses in small towns offering coupons and deals through the established players like Google and Facebook. Mobile-friendly information and QR Codes will pop up, even in remote locations.” and “The wave of global outsourcing may have crested, and small town business can benefit by capturing more of these jobs through ruralsourcing. Rural service firms claim a number of advantages over global firms: shorter supply chains, better data security, intellectual property protection, cultural compatibility, and convenient time zones. Costs are lower than traditional urban firms, reflecting the lower rural cost of living. Those small town companies capable of partnering with large corporate clients stand to gain new business throughout 2011.” Smart rural economic development corporations, government leaders and business owners will pay heed…

Related Articles

• More rural outsourcing firms to watch (smallbizsurvival.com)
• 5 Predictions for Small Business in 2011 (e1evation.com)
• Startup Whisperer 2010 Prediction Results (startupwhisperer.com)

How to choose the Twitter client that’s right for you

Image by barney.craggs via Flickr

More than a third of all tweets are sent by people visiting Twitter’s default Web client. Which is too bad, because Twitter, as a website, is by far the least effective way to use Twitter as a network.

But even though just about any third-party client will provide you with a better way to use Twitter, picking the client that’s right for you can be daunting. Should you install a client or use one that runs in your browser? Which features are really necessary? Should you pay for any of these services?

I typically prefer browser-based clients because I think it’s easier to move between browser windows than separate programs, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an installed client with a really great feature set just for that. The best client for you is the one that fits your workflow — if you really need to be able to schedule tweets to be effective and a client doesn’t give you that option, then it’s the wrong service for you, even if everyone else loves it.

via smartblogs.com

Me? I’m a HootSuite guy — I love everything they do from the web to their Android app. How about you? btw, you can follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to go to the source…

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Eight Suggestions on Which Facebook Friends to Cut First

via gawker.com

When To Use Facebook Pages And Facebook Groups

We are aware that Facebook enables brands and companies to have connectivity to their customer sets respectively. With the recent announcement on Groups from Facebook quarters we know that Facebook Groups was in news in a big way. Facebook Pages has been around as well. Given this scenario I have been asked many a times that if we already have Facebook Pages then when do we need the Facebook Groups?

A justified query, the reason being that if you have put in time and energy in developing the Page then are we to dissolve everything and start getting people on-board onto Groups? And why so. The introduction of Facebook Groups is not done with any intent to dissolve the Facebook Pages. Infact Pages become more stronger with Groups as add on.

Groups can be used primarily for varied purpose. Like for instance:

• Have family based Groups: so when you put up photos and messages not all of your Facebook friends / list can be disturbed and interfered with.
  
• Have closed friends Groups: here you will have your privacy and just have your gang / group of friends communicating without the world really interfering onto your team.
• Have colleagues team up on a task / project: If your work environment suggests that you have a team then enable the Groups to have updates and status reports come up on the Groups wall for all to view at same time; comments will be seen and interacted / acted upon as well. 
  
• And so on, Facebook Groups have a reason to exists.
  

Coming back to the question – when we already do have Facebook Pages then why should we have Facebook Groups? To understand this we need to step back and recap on what is Facebook Pages. Add to this, we are to understand that Pages have people, I repeat all people, from all walks of life connecting to you via a single Page. Now lets assume [or maybe you have already experienced] a situation wherin your Facebook Pages has a broad value. Say for example if your Page philosophy / intent / purpose / reach is broad based and people who have joined your Page get very involved. You may now see that there is a reason to bifurcate into smaller groups. The reason being that certain people are addressing a particular issue. For this you need not create another Fan Page what you need now is to create small Facebook Groups. 

via socialmediatoday.com

Facebook Pages now include spam filters

Go to the source of the quote here: johnhaydon.com

Study Reveals What Times Facebook Users Are Most Active

Go to the source of the data here: allfacebook.com